PANDEMIC NOIR

INSIDE

AN OTHERWORLDLY OCEANIC DREAM

by Dr. Mel Waldman  

Pandemic Noir

inside

an

otherworldly oceanic dream

possesses

me

&

drowns my brain in the bestial reign of trauma

&

crossing the Bridge of Bizarro Country

I

see familiar ghosts on the other side of Un-Reality

sitting

at a round table

&

a disembodied voice bellows, “Why?”

In

this fable Thornton Wilder, the host of this diverse gathering, reads a line

from The Bridge of San Luis Rey.

Albert Camus

nods, mutters esoteric words about The Plague to a stranger

&

shrieks, “Goodbye.”

Hermann Hesse

utters, Siddhartha, Steppenwolf, & Demian,

reflecting,

“Where is the divine?”

Harry Houdini

confesses, “I never came back. This is my sin.”

Phantoms

vanish

Others

appear

as

I cross the fantastic bridge that grows unendingly

&

now Franz Kafka recites an enigmatic line

from

The Trial

about

Josef K

&

cries out for Dostoevsky

while

the other side rushes far away

Shall

I ever be free

everlastingly

crossing the eerie Bridge of Bizarro Country?

On

the other side

I

see Sigmund Freud & his patient the Wolf Man

&

Carl Jung & Hermann Hesse

&

bless Viktor Frankl who utters, Man’s Search for Meaning.

Will

I find some peace of mind?  

Nearby

the beat poets Gregory Corso, Jack Kerouac, & Lawrence Ferlinghetti

recite

iconoclastic poetry.

&

Richard Pryor, George Carlin, & Redd Foxx

crack

sparkling biting jokes that make the City Lights poets guffaw & ask for more.

&

William S. Burroughs, Carlos Castaneda, & Albert Einstein wave to me

as

I sempiternally cross the Bridge of Chance or Destiny.

Shall

I ever reach the other side? 

Shall

I awaken reborn or die on the Bridge of Bizarro Country each night again & again?

Listen

to the uncanny word that echoes throughout the universe

like

the sacred mantra OM.

Far

away on the other side of Un-Reality Thornton Wilder & Franz Kafka

shriek Why?

drilling

a hole in the soul of humanity

&

the sacred word pirouettes everlastingly

across

the Bridge of Chance or Destiny in an amaranthine ballet

Dr. Mel Waldman is a psychologist, poet, and writer whose stories have appeared in numerous magazines including HARDBOILED DETECTIVE, ESPIONAGE, THE SAINT, PULP METAL MAGAZINE, and AUDIENCE. His poems have been widely published in magazines and books including A NEW ULSTER, CLOCKWISE CAT, CRAB FAT LITERARY MAGAZINE, ESKIMO PIE, INDIANA VOICE JOURNAL, LIQUID IMAGINATION, THE BROOKLYN LITERARY REVIEW, BRICKPLIGHT, SKIVE MAGAZINE, 

ODDBALL MAGAZINE, PABLO LENNIS, POETRY PACIFIC, POETICA, RED FEZ, SQUAWK BACK, SWEET ANNIE & SWEET PEA REVIEW, THE JEWISH LITERARY JOURNAL, THE JEWISH PRESS, THE JERUSALEM POST, HOTMETAL PRESS, MAD SWIRL, HAGGARD & HALLOO, ASCENT ASPIRATIONS, YELLOW MAMA, THE BITCHIN’ KITSCH, SOUL-LIT, TWO DROPS OF INK, and NAMASTE FIJI: THE INTERNATIONAL ANTHOLOGY OF POETRY. A past winner of the literary GRADIVA AWARD in Psychoanalysis, he was nominated for a PUSHCART PRIZE in literature and is the author of 11 books. 

Ann Marie Rhiel is the Assistant Art Director for Yellow Mama Webzine. She was born and raised in Bronx, New York, presently living in New Jersey. She reconnected with her passion for art in 2016 and has had her work exhibited in art galleries around northern New Jersey ever since. She is a commissioned painting artist, who also enjoys photography. Her work has also appeared in Black Petals and Megazine Official.